10:25: does it mean that the “classic version” is male? what about bathroom signs in airports – the male stick figure is wearing pants and the female is wearing a skirt, which is clearly a dated representation. but the male stick figure doesn’t represent all of humanity – at least, street signs in the town I’m from use both male and female stick figures to represent humanity.symbolic caricatures of people need to make use of some defining physical characteristics, and I think this whole Boon Tan thing is silly, but not offensive since there doesn’t seem to have been malicious intention involved. – an Asian with slanty eyes (not that I speak for all Asians)

10:25: does it mean that the “classic version” is male? what about bathroom signs in airports – the male stick figure is wearing pants and the female is wearing a skirt, which is clearly a dated representation. but the male stick figure doesn’t represent all of humanity – at least, street signs in the town I’m from use both male and female stick figures to represent humanity.

symbolic caricatures of people need to make use of some defining physical characteristics, and I think this whole Boon Tan thing is silly, but not offensive since there doesn’t seem to have been malicious intention involved. – an Asian with slanty eyes (not that I speak for all Asians)

8:09that a stick-figure would need breasts to be distinguished as a woman stick-figure, this means that the classic stick-figure is male.that’s why it bothers me that the female version has to have breasts, because the classic version is male.

9:07 – If a drawn outline of a woman with boobs offends you, how do you manage to flip through a magazine, watch a movie, or take a drawing class? Accurate self-representation is one of the first steps toward living a life that isn’t crippled by self-loathing.-a busty, overweight woman

9:07 – If a drawn outline of a woman with boobs offends you, how do you manage to flip through a magazine, watch a movie, or take a drawing class? Accurate self-representation is one of the first steps toward living a life that isn’t crippled by self-loathing.-a busty, overweight woman

7:59 – Point taken about positive attributes still being a form of racism, but seems like a discussion for another time. This is more a neutral use of normal characteristics.I feel that most people, if they saw a rough drawing of a woman (say an outline) and it had boobs (I’m not talking enormous, just there), would not call it sexist because it is merely a distinguishing characteristic. Likewise, the Boon Tan symbol should not be considered racist, but merely something which makes use of a physical feature of a group to distinguish a person who belongs to that group.~7:50

7:59 – Point taken about positive attributes still being a form of racism, but seems like a discussion for another time. This is more a neutral use of normal characteristics.I feel that most people, if they saw a rough drawing of a woman (say an outline) and it had boobs (I’m not talking enormous, just there), would not call it sexist because it is merely a distinguishing characteristic. Likewise, the Boon Tan symbol should not be considered racist, but merely something which makes use of a physical feature of a group to distinguish a person who belongs to that group.~7:50

7:50 – attributing positive characteristics based on race is still a from of racism.ASIDE FROM THATi also read this face as “evil smily face, with eyes squinted in a menacing gaze and mouth scrunched up,” not as “asian kid with wobbly mouth.”

The joke is not in the subject being Asian. The joke is in the pranks and the legend of the student who never showed up. Look at it this way: A black man plays a funny joke on a friend. Word gets around and somebody draws a comic of it with stick figures. The stick figure is colored in black to identify it. Is this racist? No, it is a defining feature of the person being depicted, just as all the white stick figures in the drawing are white. Similarly, an asian in the picture might be given yellow skin or slanted eyes, depending on their specific background. A person who is Jewish might be given a larger nose or curly hair. In this way, the characters are defined, and as long as the characters aren’t used to demonstrate their race participating in a certain negative behavior often associated with a stereotype, then the drawing has used as merely identifiers, not as a form of racism.Similarly, Boon Tan was from Malaysia, and the original portrayal used slanted eyes to identify that the character being introduced was Boon Tan, not some random white-dude. The symbol can not be changed once it has reached such cultural status, and so continued use of it had to include the slanted eyes to get the point across.At this point, I feel like if the majority of smiley faces with slanted eyes were transformed into more average Caucasian eyes, then people would be complaining that the disproportionate number of white smiley faces to the total population was a form of racism. PC has its place, but there really needs to be some reasonable restrictions. Race exists – covering it up is covering up the world.

The joke is not in the subject being Asian. The joke is in the pranks and the legend of the student who never showed up. Look at it this way: A black man plays a funny joke on a friend. Word gets around and somebody draws a comic of it with stick figures. The stick figure is colored in black to identify it. Is this racist? No, it is a defining feature of the person being depicted, just as all the white stick figures in the drawing are white. Similarly, an asian in the picture might be given yellow skin or slanted eyes, depending on their specific background. A person who is Jewish might be given a larger nose or curly hair. In this way, the characters are defined, and as long as the characters aren’t used to demonstrate their race participating in a certain negative behavior often associated with a stereotype, then the drawing has used as merely identifiers, not as a form of racism.Similarly, Boon Tan was from Malaysia, and the original portrayal used slanted eyes to identify that the character being introduced was Boon Tan, not some random white-dude. The symbol can not be changed once it has reached such cultural status, and so continued use of it had to include the slanted eyes to get the point across.

At this point, I feel like if the majority of smiley faces with slanted eyes were transformed into more average Caucasian eyes, then people would be complaining that the disproportionate number of white smiley faces to the total population was a form of racism. PC has its place, but there really needs to be some reasonable restrictions. Race exists – covering it up is covering up the world.

About the racist comment, I overheard a bunch of people walk by it (who obviously don’t read wesleying) and say “oh, its an angry face.” Which is really the connotation I get from those two slanted lines most naturally anyway.

About the racist comment, I overheard a bunch of people walk by it (who obviously don’t read wesleying) and say “oh, its an angry face.” Which is really the connotation I get from those two slanted lines most naturally anyway.

The time to complain about Boon Tan being racist was years ago. When the image first came out, it could potentially be criticized for being racist or it could be accepted that to not draw the slanted eyes would be to not draw an image in the likes of the real Boon Tan). Either way, it has taken on a meaning as a legendary prankster and long running meme – not as a symbol that promotes persecution or hatred for Asians. Thus a reproduction of it is just another act of mischief by Boon Tan, not an expression of hatred – so appreciate it and accept it as slightly amusing and move on with your lives.(As a side note, I swear I saw somebody put those pieces of wood into the Butterfields’ Pod the other day. Good to see the Pod is serving its purpose.)

The time to complain about Boon Tan being racist was years ago. When the image first came out, it could potentially be criticized for being racist or it could be accepted that to not draw the slanted eyes would be to not draw an image in the likes of the real Boon Tan). Either way, it has taken on a meaning as a legendary prankster and long running meme – not as a symbol that promotes persecution or hatred for Asians. Thus a reproduction of it is just another act of mischief by Boon Tan, not an expression of hatred – so appreciate it and accept it as slightly amusing and move on with your lives.(As a side note, I swear I saw somebody put those pieces of wood into the Butterfields’ Pod the other day. Good to see the Pod is serving its purpose.)